Stability across plants, herbivores and predators is most closely associated with varied herbivore species dominance (asynchrony) in an arid grassland ecosystem. (IMAGE)

Yokohama National University

Stability across plants, herbivores and predators is most closely associated with varied herbivore species dominance (asynchrony) in an arid grassland ecosystem.

Caption

The horizontal bars indicate the standardized effect, direct (solid) or indirect (transparent), of different variables in a model grassland ecosystem. Our study demonstrates that herbivores, the intermediate consumer trophic level between predators and plants, are a key source of buffering in grassland food webs, underscoring the importance of herbivore dynamics for stabilizing ecosystems. CWM PCoA2 assesses how the average physical, physiological or behavioral characteristics of an entire species community respond to environmental changes or gradients.

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YOKOHAMA National University

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